


The Shadow Of The Future

by TheShadowRisen



Category: Assassin's Creed
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-11-12
Updated: 2014-11-11
Packaged: 2018-02-25 00:24:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,686
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2601776
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheShadowRisen/pseuds/TheShadowRisen





	The Shadow Of The Future

Sequence 1 

Ever since I joined the Brotherhood, other Assassins have told me stories of my Ancestors. Of Altair ibn-La'Ahad, the greatest Assassin to be known in our existence, of Ezio Auditore da Firenze, the Assassin who propelled the Brotherhood to lengths it had never seen, of Edward Kenway and Connor Kenway, Assassins who held key information that would one day save us. But more than all the others, they speak of Desmond Miles, credited with saving all of humanity at the dawn of the Great Purge. A Purge that has not ended despite it lasting more than a century. Since the time of Desmond, the Assassins have barely recovered. A way of the world is dying, and with it gone, there will be nothing stopping the Templars.

I am not a direct descendant of Desmond Miles and he is not my ancestor. Desmond Miles died saving the world, but his father, William, survived and his blood flows through my veins. Time passed and he eventually remarried and had another son, and the Creed limped on, leading to my Mother, but she and my Father died years ago, and time trudged forward. 

We have fought them for centuries, but time has its way in the end. The Templars have grown too strong for us to manage. As each day passes, more and more people join the Templars, and more Assassins die. Every day we hope for a savior, for someone to unite the shattered remains of the Brotherhood. I am one of the few who still fight; I have never given up on my lineage. My name is Lucius Miles and I am an Assassin.

The Assassin was sprinting, and the Templars were chasing him endlessly. His long, white robes flew behind him as he ran down the alley. A guard stood in his path a few meters in front of him, sword in hand, ready to fight. The Assassin threw a knife at him and the corpse hit the ground. The Assassin ran on.  
Only after reaching the outermost wall of the fortress, did The Assassin stop. He had run out of road, and there was nowhere to turn. He could hear the guards call out from behind him, “Stop that Murderer!” The Assassin had only one option left..   
By the time the guards reached the wall there was nothing but dust to greet them. They looked around helplessly, trying to find him. They stood blindly for a few moments until one of them looked up to the rooftops.

“There he is! Kill him!”

The guard ran up a nearby stone building and pursued the Assassin. As the chase grew longer, more and more Templars pursued The Assassin, leaping from rooftop to rooftop. Finally he stopped again. The string of buildings had run out. There was absolutely nowhere to run.   
The guards caught up to him within several moments and n cornered him. 

The guards were on one side of him, the ledge to another. The Assassin took a step back. 

He was terribly outnumbered.   
From the other guards, one of them, a Captain, stepped out of his ranks.

“Surrender, you fool. There is nowhere to go now.”

The Assassin looked behind him, then below him.

“If you are not to surrender fairly, we will surely kill you”

The Assassin noticed something beneath himself. A small hay bale. 

“Have you nothing to say?” The Captain said, as he drew his sword and pointed it towards his target. The Captain then spoke one word, merely a whisper, “Assassin.”

Altair simply smiled and jumped.

Lucius opened his eyes and sat up in bed. “It was all a dream? it seemed so real.”

Charlotte, North Carolina, Year: 2136

Lucius opened his eyes and lifted his head off of his desk. “It was all a dream? it seemed so real.”looked around the classroom. There wasn’t much to look at, gray-white cinderblock walls, plain metal desks; it was overall very boring, despite the occasional splash of color coming from someone’s shirt or jacket. No wonder he fell asleep. What was he doing before in class? He was too tired to remember, after the hell that took place last night. He had to put one of his hidden blades in a chemical pool to get all of that blood off it. He still wore the other. The teachers never noticed them under his jacket or shirt sleeves. Either that or they just didn’t care.

Lucius saw that the other students were putting their answers on their test sheets, labeled “Algebra II Exam: Property of CNCS#25” An older technology, but Charlotte North Carolina School # 25 wasn’t as wealthy as some others. If anything it was very behind. Lucius once heard of a school that was so rich that it could afford Arts programs. But Lucius never believed that “Mom” was telling the truth when she said that. You would have to be a millionaire to afford to go to such a school, or have allies in the government. Actually you’d have to have both.

Charlotte had become the main city to house the government since the war. So it was possible to accomplish this, but every city had a bad spot a little rough patch. Charlotte’s patch covered half the city. Crime was most people’s current occupation, and his home was right in the middle of it. There was a time once, before the war, before the Recession, when the Arts were a mandatory thing for schools. But then came the American Abandonment, and things not essential were pushed aside.

That was hardly 70 years ago, and a once proud country now stood in the shadows. While the rest of the world grew in the sunshine. The war left the government, economy, and the rest of the country utterly crippled. Lucius had overheard a few government men talking about being close to a “complete overthrow” a matter of weeks ago, as he eavesdropped from a nearby rooftop. He paid little attention to this “new information” because he had heard the same things repeated since he had become an Assassin five years ago.

Lucius looked around the room until his eyes found Macie. She was busy drawing on her finished exam, so she didn’t notice him looking at her. Her dark hair fell over her eyes. He’d had a crush on her since the day he'd first seen her. She was an outcast, quietly drawing, despite how little people do that anymore, and she was beautiful nonetheless. Several times a guy here or there would hit on her or invite her into his circle, but every time she quietly declined. She didn’t know Lucius, or at least not personally, but he loved her anyway. The problems of the world did not affect her like everyone else. As if she was spared by misery itself.

“Do you intend to get a zero, Mr. Miles, or would you prefer to continue to cheat on this exam?” Lucius looked at the front of the room. The teacher stood at the front of the room. His arms crossed over his chest, as he stared at Lucius. “I’m not cheating, I’m just...” Lucius sighed. He hated this teacher more every day. The entire class had their eyes on him, Macie included. Having people stare at you is not a comfortable experience, especially if you’re an Assassin.

“You’re just what?” The teacher obviously hated his job, but was relishing this brief moment. “Are you just enjoying the scenery of the classroom?” He opened his arms and gestured at the room. The class was silent. The walls never looked blander. The teacher walked towards Lucius’s desk. He took Lucius’s exam and wrote a large “0” on it. “And if anyone else would like to cheat, they can receive a zero also.” The teacher said to the entire class. 

Lucius just leaned back in his chair, and laid his head back..

The Halls were almost empty as Lucius headed for his next class. Not many people went to this school anymore. He needed to hurry. He was going to be late. But Lucius didn’t care. He couldn’t stop thinking about earlier that morning. He was an Assassin. One who could disappear in seconds, but not today. He hated being left out in the open, to be vulnerable. He was trained to go unnoticed. Naturally he felt uncomfortable when all eyes go to him. He was furious..

Avery hated it when he didn’t take his education seriously. She was a teacher after all. She had been his guardian, since his parents had died. She was his history teacher before that, and she was a friend since they had first met. Lucius began to walk faster. It was Maria Avery who inducted Lucius to the Brotherhood, not his parents. Lucius wasn't even sure if his parents had even known about the Brotherhood’s existence, let alone the Templars.

They were never really there for him; not only emotionally, but also physically. They were always out, getting drunk or high, sometimes both. They barely knew Lucius’s name until he was eleven. No wonder they’d died in a drunken car wreck. Lucius hadn't really cared. He learned more, experienced more, LIVED more in the past four years with Avery, than the previous eleven years with the strangers he called “parents”.

The day Maria Avery became the guardian of Lucius was the day she told him the truth. Not the lies she had told in school, but the true reality. A world of Templars with the few Assassin’s left to stop their war on humanity. The next day Lucius asked to join the Brotherhood. Training was painful, but not impossible. Everyday he got stronger, nimbler, stealthier. After a year or so, there was only one thing left to do.

Lucius was running to class now. He was tasked to go into the city, stop a criminal, and come back with the blood on his hands to prove it. Lucius had trained on dummies, holograms, even a punching bag, but nothing could prepare him for what followed. Punching bags don’t scream. They don’t bleed. They don’t feel guilt. Humans do. That night, Lucius came back with blood on his hands. 

Nothing could have prepared him for the what happens when you stab a man and he...  
Slam!

Lucius was on the ground. His head reeled. It took him a second to piece together what happened. Anxiety, fear, pain, guilt, beauty, collision. There were books scattered all over the bland hallway. There was spots of crimson on the floor. The late bell was ringing, the halls were empty. Except for one. 

Macie was frantically trying to reassemble the formation the books once stood in her hands. She was whispering. “I’msosorryIwasn’tpayingattention.” Her words were a panicked blur. It wasn't uncommon for people to get into fights over things like this and sex did not matter at this school. When Lucius looked up she gasped, She grabbed a small cloth from her overflowing bag and handed it to Lucius. “It’s for your, uh...” She was clearly uncomfortable. 

Lucius took his hand to his face and realized that his lip was bleeding. Not immensely so, but it wasn’t difficult to see that Macie was horrified by blood. He took the white rag, and wiped the stream from his face. Macie looked terrified. Three days ago, a girl ran into an older guy on the way to class. When they found her she was beaten into critical condition, unconscious and bloody. But this was not new information, it happened often.“No. I apologize.” Lucius said. He was one of few who still believed in respect. Macie was shivering with fear, tears rolled down her face. “I am not going to hurt you.” 

“But that’s what he said!” Macie sobbed as she turned her head. Lucius could see a large bruise on her neck. Rage swallowed his conscience, yet he did not let it show on the outside. Who would dare? She could not stop whimpering, she thought she was going to die. Macie lingered in the halls sometimes, nobody knew why. But She was there that day. She must have hidden and seen the girl get jumped. She watched as an innocent person was put into critical condition for being at the wrong place at the wrong time. Then he struck the only witness.Lucius held onto her hand and helped her up. He sheltered her.

“But I’m not him.”  
Then Lucius walked Macie to class.

Lucius walked into the warehouse that he’d called home for the past four years. “Mother, I’m home!” He said sarcastically. Avery hated being called a “Mom”. Lucius casually strolled around the main training room, littered with targets and sparing dummies. There was nobody in sight. Something was wrong.

Avery had “retired” from teaching last year. She couldn’t have gone anywhere else.Lucius searched the room. There was no sign of life, but no sign of death. Lucius prepared for a fight.“Hello?”   
A figure appeared out of nowhere. Lucius spun around to face it, hidden blade drawn, but was knocked on his back. A sword hovered above his throat.“I am not your mother.” Maria Avery said, standing over Lucius.“I noticed,” was Lucius’s reply, he gestured towards her sword and she helped him up, “Why do you still use that? It is not like Templars to not be prepared for a unsharpened old sword.” 

“You’ll be surprised.” Maria, smiled at him. It wasn’t as young a smile as it used to be, but it was only forty-five, barely. “Idek. Perhaps since the Officers are so focused on their guns, that they don’t even remember what swords are. Let alone how to counter one.”“That’s a myth.” Lucius replied, as they walked to a table lined with swords and knives. “You know what happened last night.”“Ah yes. And how you were chased from rooftop to rooftop, across the entire city of Charlotte? Killing countless Templars in the process, and barely escaping alive, coming home coated in blood?” 

Maria reached at the table and picked up a small tablet. It read “60 DEAD AT HAND OF LOCAL VIGILANTE” Lucius laughed. “They are calling me a vigilante now?” He pointed towards a blurry photograph in the article. It was a picture of Lucius, in blood soaked Assassin robes, jumping across a rooftop with 10 Officers behind him. Lucius’s face was covered by his hood, but that wasn’t the only thing that concealed his identity. 

“I look like a red blur.” Lucius remarked. “That is now going to be a white blur.” said Avery. “Good point.” Lucius walked towards a large basin of chemical water. The water had been soaking for about twenty hours and had become a bloody red. He pulled out his Assassin robes. He had received the robes from Maria when he turned fifteen last year. They were his first birthday present. Not because Maria had been an unkind Guardian, who had no such income to afford such a thing. It was that he didn’t want them. Lucius did not want to be one to receive items. He viewed himself as a giver of peace, or whatever small fraction of peace he could give. Peace through violence. He did not feel right to be one to take things from others. It put him at the center of attention. Yet he cherished the gift.

His robes were white mainly, but they had red accents. The accents followed the outline of his jacket and the hood. In some places they would out of the outline, in red curved peaks, mainly at the bottom of the back and on the extended cuffs of the sleeves. The accents were single curved triangles that resemble blood red fire in some ways. Originating at his right hip, there was a diagonal stripe reaching to his left pectoral, then back to the left of his neck.

The tip of the hood was special though. On the very front of the hood, right over Lucius’s eyes, there was a red accent. This accent had two tips, one pointing upwards at the rest of the hood, the other pointing down, towards the rest of the suit. Over the jacket he wore a thin black leather belt. The belt was held together by a silver Assassin symbol on a thin silver belt buckle. This accessory made Lucius proud. He believed it reminded the Templars that the Assassins were not dead. Close, but not yet completely gone. 

Lucius reached into the vat again, and pulled out his other hidden blade. It was cold and wet steel, but it would still function. Lucius extended the blade and sent it back to it’s own depths. He was obsessed with the thing.“So you have an idea what you’re gonna do tonight?” Maria asked Lucius dawned his robes. “I’m gonna save some lives,”  
Lucius put on his hood.“And kill lot’s of people.”

“What’s the Capital of West Russia?”  
“Seriously?”  
“Yes.”  
“We’re running on rooftop, we could be shot down any minute, and you want to ask me geography?”  
“-Yes.”  
Lucius gave Maria a harsh look. Then limbered up a vertical gutter.   
“It keeps your brain active and focused.”  
“I doubt that.”  
Lucius jumped over a power generator. The city was always lit at night, even if most cities couldn’t be. The single shining jewel of what was once a great empire. The most corrupt city on earth.   
Lucius and Maria stopped for a moment, listening for anything to be dealt with.   
“St. Petersburg?”  
“New St. Petersburg. The original was burnt down during the war.”  
“Which war? The Great War or the Third Revolution?”  
“Both, they rebuilt after The Great War.” She paused, “But after The Revolution, half of Russia was a wasteland, so was the old capital. So they built a new city, named it after the old one, and split their country in half, hence today, West Russia and East Russia.”  
“Why is East Russia even a country? Everything beyond the Yenisei River is a nuclear wasteland, and there are absolutely no inhibitors.” Lucius looked around. There were no Officers nearby.   
“Idek. Some lost sense of pride, their government just assumed that it was technically still somewhat Russia. So they made it keep the name, to keep the people from getting too worked up over their country still getting nuked and ripped in half.”  
“But they did.”  
“Exactly, so came another Revolution.”  
“And the Templars.”  
“Barely. The few Assassin’s there got rid of them all before the Templars could even devise a plan. One of my closest friends died fighting.” Maria looked directly at Lucius. She did not take the subject of the Templars lightly.  
“Sorry.” He said reluctantly.  
“It’s fine, I just get emotional over it sometimes. He was close.” Lucius looked back at the city. He wondered how many Assassin’s watched over their cities also. How many Assassin’s were left? A thousand? A hundred?   
Just he and Maria?  
Lucius and Maria resumed running. Lucius was still sore from the previous night, especially where an Officer had slammed him in the back with his Officer’s Club.  
The City of Charlotte was built on the top of hill, which was why the people called the epicenter of the district, Uptown. But since the city was founded, it only grew. It was a city that was focused on banking before the War. Now, it held what was left of the country’s crumbling government. The streets were ravaged with crime. This was a trivial matter for the government. They had bigger things to worry about.   
But this was out of hand.

then we did endurance and speed, then my favorite exercise, I put on a blindfold, then mom walked around the room and tossed tennis balls at me. I was supposed to dodge them. sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn’t. I was slowly improving.

dinner , unlike training, was always animated. Mom was a much better parent than she was teacher. She asked me about my day and how school was going. All the things a mom WOULD ask about. she was Almost like a normal mother then. 

As night descended and the sky darkened, Mom disappeared into the back of the house, saying curtly “Save a few lives if you can, I’ll join you later, I have some research to do.”.....

Lucius sat atop a one story abandoned shop listening to the noises of the city. listening for the sounds of crime, which would inevitably emerge as the night wore on. He thought about the state of the country as it was now…. could there really have been a time that life was at least better than this? Was there ever a time that schools actually taught kids usable things? and things that they wanted to learn. it sounded too good to be true for him.

Lucius only knew this life. He thought that that was best though, that way he had nothing to miss. It occurred to him that avery would have had a life before all this, when things were still normal. Lucius hoped that she’d get to have a normal life again someday.. maybe they all would. 

suddenly he heard the familiar sound of people struggling, then a female voice screaming. “NO GET OFF OF ME!, LEAVE ME ALONE YOU CREEP!!! AHHHHHHHHHH” Lucius was up like a shot. one moment sitting, the next gone, legs moving fast, head low. he jumped a couple rooftops and soon came upon the crime scene.

what he saw chilled him to the bone. A man was holding a girl at gunpoint, she was holding her sketchbook in front of her like it could save her. Tears were streaming down her face as she sobbed. It was Macie, “What do you want?” she sobbed. “You are going to come with me, then we’re going to have some fun!” The man was wearing a lopsided grin. “ please,” Macie sobbed. “please no.” 

it was the first time Lucius saw true terror on the face of someone he loved. He hated it. He never wanted to see it again. Luscious jumped, knives extending…….


End file.
